YZ-1500 Assault Craft
History The YZ-1500 was developed for the New Republic as a specialized assault platform mirroring the modified light freighters used by the Alliance during the civil war. As such many features were developed side by side with the ship to allow for different mission profiles. The end result was a high quality, powerful, versatile and expensive vessel. The ship was reserved for high risk/high priority missions and typically issued to Special Forces. While the ship may not have seen a large production run, the NR ordered them or a regular basis. Around 16 ABY the New Republic allowed CEC to produce a down scaled version of the ship for civilian use. Civilian sales were fair, cargo corps and security forces both liked the vessel for its weapons and ability to carry a large sum of cargo. The reason for this would only become clear to a select few around 18 ABY when the NRI ordered a number of the ships for their use in operations. It was also around this time where new features could be applied and new pieces of technology added in. Features The ship makes use of cutting edge technology making it one of the most expensive ships its size, though the cost is well worth it for its performance. The ship can come with different features but is incapable of having them all with out removing weapons. Typically the ship will maintain the stock weapons and speed while adding in one other feature, allowing the ship to maintain its heavy weapons for combat while giving it a specialized secondary role. Speed and Agility Powerful engines with multi-directional thruster/verniers give the large ship the speed and maneuvering similar to a Y-wing. These systems even offer room for additional thrusters/verniers and the engines have after market parts/attachments that can further improve upon them. Weapon Systems The ships weapon systems makes, in addition to its speed and agility make it a serious threat to larger ships in numbers or combined with star fighters. The Turbolasers have been fine tuned for a respectable refire rate and while they don't match similar weapons on larger ship fire power wise, they are still significantly stronger then star fighter scale weapons. The concussion missile system can be linked to the pilots controls or handled by a separate operator. When used by the pilot that function like any other star fighter missile system. But when operated by another at the appropriate station, the operator can target numerous enemy craft or locations on a larger vessel and fire all the tubes at once.The missiles will then seek out their targets no matter what directs they were fired from. The drawback to this system is the targets must be in a certain range to allow for the missiles to track and maneuver to their target. The Capital-Grade Torpedoes are the most dangerous weapon system on the ship. While they only can hold two of these weapons, the ship is capable of delivering them at much shorter ranges then a capital ship that's armed with them. This gives them the advantage of the enemy not being able to react quickly enough to shoot them down. One of these torpedoes are capable of severally damaging or even crippling a frigate sized vessel. The defensive blasters are infantry scaled and are used to prevent hostiles from getting near or boarding the ship. This is only a small measure of defense as the ship should either getting ready to take off and escape or be used as support for the troops the ship is landing in a hostile environment. Boarding Operations The ship can be equipped with high powered cutters and docking clamps to allow for Special ops to board hostile ships quickly during a battle. Ships equipped with this are typically used in rescue operations against enemy ships or stations. Sensor Evasion Ships equipped with this system are used as blockade runners, using the expansive cargo hold to bring needed supplies or troops to a planet under siege. The system isn't a true stealth or cloaking device, it just makes the ship harder to track or find. Civilian The Civilian model removes the Capital-Grade Torpedoes, their bays turned into additional cargo holds, and replaces the missile system with a more typical targeting device and four concussion missile tubes. The Turbolasers have limiters placed on them reducing their fire power, though these can easily be removed. They also aren't equipped with any of the military features stated above or below.